


Good Things Do Happen After 2am

by pennysparrow



Series: No Capes [2]
Category: DCU (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Diners, Don't copy to another site, Food, Friendship, Gen, Good Parent Oliver Queen, Milkshakes, No Plot/Plotless, this is literally just teenagers being dumb in a diner and friendship feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25175395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: "It wasn’t like she’d intended to be sitting in the vinyl covered booth of a twenty-four-hour diner at nearly three in the morning. Mia was normally long asleep in her obnoxiously soft queen-sized bed by this point. But it had been the first Friday without a football game in months and there was no competition the next day either, so Mia had eagerly gone out with her friends."
Relationships: Mia Dearden & Roy Harper, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: No Capes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823815
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Good Things Do Happen After 2am

**Author's Note:**

> I have another, very different, diner fic bouncing around in my head but this one had to be written first. I just really like this wacky no capes au I came up with and miss both diners and friends.

It wasn’t like she’d intended to be sitting in the vinyl covered booth of a twenty-four-hour diner at nearly three in the morning. Mia was normally long asleep in her obnoxiously soft queen-sized bed by this point. But it had been the first Friday without a football game in months and there was no competition the next day either, so Mia had eagerly gone out with her friends.

Wedged between Bart and Tim with a frankly ridiculous amount of teenagers stuck into the corner booth, Mia was happy. Courtney’s stepdad had picked her up and dropped them both off at a movie theater in Metropolis hours ago. Mia texted Ollie when they got to the diner and he said he’d pick them up whenever they were ready, and had been reliably checking in every hour or so. Pat likely would’ve come and gotten them already if Court hadn’t been spending the night at the Queen household.

Bart was working on his sixth or seventh plate of Kitchen Sink Fries, though Mia wasn’t the only one who had been helping him eat them, as Conner flagged down the waitress so that they could tip her before she left for the night. The Wayne kids had said they’d cover the bill when they decided to come here after the movie, but everyone else still chipped in for the tip. Even though that meant they were all jostling and bumping into each other in the compact space as they reached for purses and wallets and crumpled bills stuffed into coat pockets.

That was another thing that made the small space even smaller. Not just the sheerly absurd number of teenagers, but the winter coats of varying bulk they all wore now that the late November weather had settled in with a bite.

As the waitress walked away, her own coat already on, the bell over the diner’s door chimed. Habit had Mia turning to crane her neck around to see who it might be. Especially since it was so late and besides the staff, they had been the only other people in the diner for over an hour now.

Mia was glad she had when she immediately recognized some of the members of the slightly rowdy group that was stumbling in. Accidentally elbowing Tim in her haste, Mia turned and climbed onto the bench so she knelt and leant over the back of the booth.

“Harper! You cutting me out of some much-needed babysitting money?”

The redhead she’d addressed turned from where the group huddled around the “Please Wait to be Seated” sign and lit up at seeing Mia and the crowd of people she was squished in with.

“Dearden! My favorite little sister!”

“Only little sister,” she replied quickly with an eye roll.

The volume of Roy’s voice and flush to his cheeks told her they must’ve all been out dancing. He didn’t drink anymore but he liked to go out with his friends and they had a tendency to pick the loudest, fullest club in the area. Mostly because it was the only good club in the area. Regardless, it did result in some temporary ear ringing and a rise in body temperature.

The rest of Roy’s friends had turned to see the high schoolers in the corner and were gesturing towards them as the new waitress slipped on her apron and approached the door. Roy didn’t notice as he made a beeline for the corner booth, climbing into the bench behind Mia so they could chat face to face.

He reached over and grabbed Mia in a tight hug, making her bump Bart and Tim again in the process. Roy was warm and a little sweaty under his old Carhartt jacket, they’d definitely just closed out the club.

“I’m still not hearing why I didn’t get asked to babysit tonight,” Mia huffed as Roy rocked her back and forth slightly. She knew it was partially as a ridiculous but genuine display of affection inherited from Ollie and partially as a way to jostle her friends.

“I ran into Dinah this morning and she said you had plans, wasn’t going to intrude on those so I called Connor. Kyle is introducing them both to The Emperor’s New Groove,” Roy explained. He finally let go but neither turned to sit properly, even as Roy’s friends filed into the booth he’d inadvertently claimed.

Mia had to laugh. “Ollie’s playing full house tonight: Courtney’s sleeping over, Connor’s got Kyle and babysitting Lian, and I know you so you’ll end up crashing too.”

Roy worked his coat off as he grinned at her. “He better bring his A game to brunch tomorrow.”

“Why is it that you people follow me everywhere?” Tim asked, appearing next to Mia’s shoulder and addressing the man who had just slid in across the table.

“Hey Tim! Hi Cass! Hi Steph! It’s so cute how you say ‘you people’ meaning your family and yet you brought two members with you,” Dick said a little too brightly and that combined with the way he was leaning on Wally told Mia and everyone else that Dick Grayson was still tipsy.

“Not a Wayne!” Steph called in a knee jerk response that Mia would never say out loud, but totally thought was Pavlovian at this point.

Bart had wiggled around so that he copied Mia’s position kneeling on the bench. “Wow, Wally! Hi! Funny seeing you here!” Bart was always chipper, or at least mostly positive, but Mia noticed in his cousin’s presence it took on an extra brightness that danced towards sharpness. This was no exception.

Wally shifted so that Dick was leaning a little more comfortably against him and shot a smile that was just short of a grimace at them.

Mia rarely interacted with the other redhead in Roy’s friend group. She heard a whole lot about him but mostly from Roy who was the definition of an unreliable narrator when it came to his friends. And Bart was family and what you said about family didn’t always equate to a fact even if it was true, because emotions both added truth and falsity to everything. As such, she didn’t really know what to think of his reaction and subsequent response.

“Bart. Isn’t it a little late for you to still be out?”

“It’s not a school night. Where’s Linda?” Bart brushed it off, whatever it was.

“I’m right here!” A young woman laughed as she appeared from the hall that led to the bathrooms. She threw her coat on the bench next to Wally and nudged him to move over, making Dick shift to lean against a goth girl Mia thought went by Raven who rolled her eyes and slid closer to a guy with bright green hair who then let out a bit of a squawk and found himself pressed further into the wall. The people who had climbed onto either side of Roy laughed at the interaction and Mia couldn’t help but smile herself.

“What are you kids doing here?” Roy asked, turning back from glancing to see what the commotion was about. “Don’t most of you have pumpkin licenses if you drive at all?”

“Uh, huh?” Bart had pulled his attention to Roy from where he’d been making faces at Linda.

“Let me translate, I’m unfortunately fluent in Roy,” Mia teased, flashing her brother a smirk. “He’s surprised we’re all out so late since you can’t drive after eleven if you’re under eighteen.”

“Oh! Cinderella. Cute,” Bart grinned.

“Fun facts,” Mia said with faux cheer, “despite popular belief Kon is a legal adult! And Alfred has graciously agreed to ferrying many of these layabouts home and Oliver is coming for me and Court.”

“I’ll take you home,” Roy said easily. “I’m going there anyway.”

“You sure?” Mia eyed Donna and another girl with dark pink hair — and why did her brothers’ friends all have such amazing hair? — as they leaned into each other giggling madly. Roy was definitely sober and Wally and Linda seemed so too but Mia had _serious_ doubts about the rest of their friends.

“If Alfred’s coming then he can take Dick’s drunk ass with him –” so Mia had been right “— and we can easily drop Garth and Donna off on the way. Wally can handle the rest.” Roy assured her then paused and turned back around to do a quick headcount. “Hey Fleet-feet, what happened to your friend?”

“Hartley? Went home with that cute bartender,” Linda grinned.

“Ay! Good for him!” Roy smiled before turning back to Mia. “Yeah, we’re good. Piper’s not the only one who managed to find a better way to spend the night so I’ve got the space. Text Ollie and let him know, then go back to hanging out with your friends while I help this mess come up with a coherent order.”

Giggling, Mia turned back around and hit Tim and Bart with her knees and elbows all over again. They’d tapped out of the conversation earlier and were now engaged in some kind of debate with Cissie and Conner.

Anita leaned forward, getting Mia’s attention from three people away. “Want the rest of my milkshake?” she asked, already sliding the tall, pedestaled glass across the Formica.

“Sure!” Mia caught the milkshake and swirled the straw through what was now more milk than shake, trying to figure out if the pink was more strawberry or teaberry. She wouldn’t have put it past Anita to be drinking a teaberry milkshake but she wasn’t entirely sure if she remembered the flavor being on the menu.

Mia took a cautious sip.

Strawberry.

Mia took another sip then leaned over so her shoulder pressed against Bart’s. “This place have teaberry ice cream?” she asked lowly.

He blinked and she could almost see as his brain switched from the argument about pop tarts being ravioli to pulling up the diner’s ice cream list. His face flickered quickly between expressions before settling on one with his nose scrunched up and mouth bunched to the side.

Bart shook his head. “No. Not an option.”

Mia hummed and sipped the strawberry shake. “Ok.”

“Why?” She’d gotten Bart’s full, undivided attention now. Though most things got Bart’s full attention, it just didn’t seem like it unless you knew how to recognize it. It was clear that he’d shifted his focus off of the debate at her question and now wouldn’t be returning to it.

“Just a random thought, wondering what teaberry milkshake might taste like.”

Bart looked pensive before making a face of disgust. “I think I’m good not knowing.”

“You? Wouldn’t want to try some new weird food?” Mia had a hard time keeping the shock out of her voice. Granted it came out more sarcastic than genuine.

“I don’t actually like teaberry.”

“I think I knew that...”

“You gave me that stick of gum once. Was not a fan.”

She remembered. Ollie had bought a pack for her from some old timey candy store he’d visited with Dinah on a date to some small town up in the mountains. Said he used to have it as a kid, figured she might want to try it. The flavor was weird, not bad, but odd. The gum wasn’t really conducive to bubble blowing though. So, Mia had finished the pack off as soon as possible and gave out a couple sticks of it as part of that plan. She hadn’t had it since. Though she did make sure to tell Ollie she had appreciated the thought, which she had. Both telling Ollie and appreciating it.

Bart mopped up some gravy with a fry before popping it into his mouth. “Didn’t know they made teaberry ice cream.”

“Yeah,” Mia reached for her own fry and swirled it around in quickly cooling melted cheese. “Ollie likes teaberry things but they’re hard to find. Used to be this ice cream place up the line that sold it but they’ve been closed since before I showed up.”

“Huh,” Bart picked up a fallen piece of bacon and used it to scoop up some sour cream.

“Yup,” Mia finished the decidedly melted milkshake, causing a hollow sound to echo around them when she ran out of liquid and started sucking air up the straw.

“Wanna keep it down over there?” A voice at her ear snarked.

Peering over her shoulder, Mia saw Roy smirking at her.

“Thought we were minding our own hooligans?” Mia asked flatly.

“You are my hooligan.”

“Hardy har har. Actually, I’m Oliver’s; he’s got the receipt.”

“He’s got my receipt too ya know. _And_ he sprung for the warranty on me and yet never used it. Which means I’ve weathered more and thus outrank you. You’re my hooligan.” Roy looked so smug.

Normally, Mia would try to knock him down a few pegs. Sibling bonding. They were cute like that. But she was simultaneously too tired and not tired enough to be able to follow that logic. So, she settled for just blinking at him.

“I’ve run out of witty responses. Please deposit twenty dollars and allow time to recharge for more,” she said and turned back to her friends.

Tim was gaping at her slightly. She was tempted to see if she could get one of the little fries that were all that was left into his mouth.

She gave into the temptation.

Mia managed to keep Tim from biting her fingers mostly because she accidentally bumped the fry against his lip, causing him to sputter and knock her hand away.

“Seriously?” Tim sighed.

You’d think he’d be used to this sort of thing by now. They _were_ friends and he had so many siblings. One of which was Jason Todd.

“You were staring,” Mia said frankly.

“I’m just not used to people I’m not related to making adoption jokes. Especially dubious taste adoption jokes,” Tim said.

Mia laughed. “We try not to, cause Ollie just gets this kicked puppy face, but it happens.”

“I think Bruce is just used to it by now.” Tim tilted his head slightly as he considered it.

She could only imagine what life was like at Wayne Manor. It mostly boiled down to “chaos.”

“Yeah,” Tim nodded, “he’s pretty much resigned to them.”

That made Mia snort softly. She didn’t really interact with Bruce but he always looked exhausted when she saw him. Granted he was either swarmed by paparazzi, corralling his over energetic family, or being teased mercilessly by Dinah and Ollie. Still, Mia had no doubt Tim was speaking the truth.

Mia’s phone buzzed and she flipped it over to see another check-in text from Ollie, right on time. She gave a quick reply explaining Roy and his friends showing up and how he’d be bringing them home. Oliver gave her an ok and told her to let herself in, that he was going to bed.

The mention of sleep reminded Mia of exactly how late it was and how tired she was. A yawn snuck up on her and she ducked her head to try and cover it.

She was decidedly unsuccessful because soon her friends were yelling “Mia!” and yawning too.

She grimaced but didn’t apologize. Someone was bound to do something vaguely gross or obnoxious soon and the annoyance would shift. Mia’s money was on Kon. Or Cassie. Though Cass was always an easily overlooked contender.

There was a sudden weight on her shoulder and Mia turned her head only to be met with a face full of fluffy auburn hair.

“You crashing there, Bart?” she whispered into the floof.

“Mm-hm,” Bart hummed. He slumped further onto her shoulder.

“Long day, huh buddy?”

“You wouldn’t believe it,” he sighed.

Mia slung her arm over Bart’s shoulder and ruffled his hair. She met Cissie’s eyes from across the booth and the other blonde frowned.

“What happened?” Mia mouthed. Bart had been acting just slightly off all night and while he was a cuddly kid, he wasn’t normally so despondent.

Cissie made a face, a year ago Mia would’ve thought it had been directed at her but now she knew better. Whatever Cissie was annoyed about it definitely had nothing to do with Mia.

“Some dickwads at school,” Cissie mouthed back.

It wasn’t surprising but it still pissed Mia off immensely that anyone would be a jerk to her friends. If she weren’t literally keeping Bart upright right now, and he weren’t blocking the way out of the booth, Mia would be visiting those assholes and introducing their faces to her flagpole. Cissie’s expression said she’d be joining Mia with her bow.

“If you need to doze off you go right ahead, kay?” Mia tugged him closer into a hug.

Bart’s response was an odd amalgamation of sounds that she took as an affirmative.

“Hey,” Tim said from near her other shoulder. “He ok?”

“He’s just tired,” Mia lied smoothly.

Tim pulled back as far as the meager space between him and Cassie allowed to give her an incredulous look. She should’ve known better; Tim had a bullshit detector like no other.

Mia nodded subtly towards Cissie who mouthed “dicks” and that seemed enough for Tim as he nodded.

His mouth pulled down in that weird little angry frown he got. It wasn’t so much the frown itself that freaked Mia out — partially because it was so small it could hardly be classified as a frown — but rather the way the rest of his face was completely blank. It was scary.

Terrifying.

Nearly nightmare inducing.

Mia was glad she had yet to be the cause of that frown.

At her side, Bart went limp and suddenly Mia found herself bearing all his weight. He was definitely asleep.

“We can go commit a felony later,” she gave Tim and Cissie a pointed look that she hoped got across _‘and not without Bart and I with you’_ , “for now though I think it’s time we get him home.”

Cissie nodded and pushed at Rose so she could slide out. She headed towards the booth behind them and Mia strained her ears to hear what was going on.

There was still a lot of laughter and occasional shout or loud joke but the volume from the table behind her had been significantly decreased the past couple minutes meaning they’d at least started eating.

“Hey, I uh, don’t mean to interrupt,” Cissie said and the chaos quieted further. “Bart pretty much crashed and the rest of us are getting tired so I don’t know exactly what the new car sitch is but I just thought you guys should know.”

Tim must have been listening in – well Tim was always listening in – because he lifted his arm in the air and wiggled his phone. It was a supremely vague signal but Cissie seemed to understand it.

“Oh! And uh, Tim texted Alfred so he’s on his way and that’s going to break up this little party anyway.” Mia could just imagine Cissie gesturing at the slowly sobering up young adults.

“We’ll head out when Alfred gets here, gives us time to finish up,” Roy said from directly behind her.

“And I’ll take some more people home, that way you can take Bart, Wally,” Mia figured the voice was Linda’s, but she was going mostly off context clues and the earlier interaction.

“Thanks,” Cissie said and then she was back, rolling her eyes as Rose refused to move and instead made her climb over the back of the bench.

“Alright, nerds!” Rose called once Cissie settled with a huff. “Start getting ready to vacate the premises. I want a Wayne platinum card on the table and ready to go and the rest of you ponying up more tip for this poor waitress stuck cleaning up your mess and for god’s sake get your shit together now.”

She may have been blunt, but Rose got results.

There was something below a scramble but above a flurry as everyone started to move. Once again, pulling crumbled bills and piling them for a tip. Cass had slid a credit card towards the center of the table before attempting to tug an overlarge hoodie over her head while still stuck between Steph and Anita. Courtney had ducked under the table and her grumbles of “move your feet!” meant she was trying to get her little leather backpack from where it’d fallen to the floor and inevitably gotten tangled in people’s legs.

Through it all Bart still managed to sleep, conked out on Mia’s shoulder. She’d had a theory he was the type of person who could just sleep anywhere and was semi delighted that she was right.

With Bart blocking one end of the booth everyone was required to shuffle and slide out the other.

Kon tossed his keys into the air, caught them, and repeated. He stood at the end of the table waiting for people to put coats on. The fact that Kon never took off his leather jacket was irrelevant apparently as he waited impatiently.

Tim hadn’t moved, besides giving Kon a dry look, and Cass and Steph had slid back in with Courtney following suit. Mia raised an eyebrow at Tim and he shrugged.

“Can’t go anywhere until Alfred gets here and it’s going to take him at least another twenty minutes to get from Gotham,” Tim explained.

Mia hummed, not wanting to move and wake Bart. It was a bit freaky that Tim could tell what she was thinking but at the same time kind of nice.

“Well we’re out,” Kon said.

He headed towards the door but was stopped by Steph calling out. “Are you all going to be able to fit in your truck?”

Mia did a head count: Cassie, Anita, Rose, Cissie, and Kon in the driver’s seat. Yeah, there was no way that they were all going to be able to squeeze into Kon’s bench seat. If it weren’t late November it wouldn’t be a problem because a couple people would just hop in the bed of the truck and Kon would drive the backroads. As it was, it was just too cold to do that. They’d walked to the diner earlier so no one had really thought too hard about seating arrangements.

“I can take someone with me and Bart,” Wally offered. At least Mia assumed it was Wally, she still wasn’t turning around and risk disrupting Bart so she couldn’t be sure.

“I’ll go,” Cissie offered immediately.

Rose eyed Cassie, who glared back. “Me too,” she said shortly.

“You sure?” Kon looked between the girls and the table behind Mia.

“Yeah, It’s not a problem.” It was definitely Wally because he’d gotten up and walked around to stand next to Bart. “I’ve been done and should be getting him home anyway.”

“It’s cause you inhale your food,” someone behind her stage whispered. Mia couldn’t be sure who but everyone was a suspect.

“Hey Mia, can you help slide him over?” Wally asked, nodding to the boy still slumped on her.

She nodded and started shifting Bart towards his cousin who was gently pulling at him. Together they managed to get Bart in Wally’s arms bridal style, his head lolling against Wally’s shoulder and mouth hanging open slightly.

“Wow. He is _out_ ,” Kon sounded impressed.

Mia had to admit, she was pretty impressed herself.

“Uh, Linda?” Wally said, turning away and taking Bart with him. Mia had her range of motion back so she turned too. “Can you, uh, grab my keys out of my pocket?” he said sheepishly.

Linda snorted before fishing said keys out of her boyfriend’s front pocket. Wally made to take them but was stopped by the fact he had a teenager in his arms. Wally grimaced and Linda laughed.

“I’ll take them,” Cissie said. She smiled as Linda passed her the keys.

There were goodbyes all around and then they were gone in a jingling of the bell above the door.

“And then there were…” Roy paused, Mia had to restrain herself from snorting, “thirteen.”

Mia tried, she really did, but she just couldn’t restrain herself. She burst out laughing at her brother’s ridiculousness.

Roy spun around to shoot her a dirty look. It had no effect on her whatsoever.

So maybe Mia hadn’t intended to be sitting in a diner in Metropolis at, now, nearly three-thirty in the morning but she knew that was exactly where she was meant to be.


End file.
